Syracuse community group protests at site of planned store

Updated on Jun 21, 2013 at 03:09 AM EDT

Proposed new store owner Rasheed Mansour, of Camillus, and Sharon Owens of the Syracuse Neighborhood Facility of the South West Community Center are on opposing sides over the issue of the store's opening but agreed to shake hands. At center is Syracuse United Neighbors member Anna Morris. When Mansour walked across the street to engage the SUN members an argument followed but ended peacefully.

As people chanted "We don't want no corner store!" and shook bottles of pennies, volunteers asked for signatures on a petition denouncing the proposed store.

Protesters carried signs that said "We were not asked!" "The neighborhoods must be a priority," and "We deserve better."

The area where Bellevue and Midland avenues meet has a large amount of vacant land. The 'Cuse Dawgs Motorcycle Club, the Oxford Street Inn homeless shelter and a sewage treatment plant sit on the bank of Onondaga Creek.

The store -- if opened in part of the vacant Midgley Printing facility -- would be across a small side street from the Oxford Street Inn, a homeless shelter run by Catholic Charities. The shelter houses men in any condition, including people with substance abuse problems.

But the shelter is planning to move to a new location in the future, officials have said.

Nijada Lindo, age 9, of Syracuse, holds up a Syracuse United Neighbors sign at a SUN protest meeting across from 200 Oxford St., the proposed site of a new corner grocery store. At left is Walt Dixie of Jubilee Homes. The SUN group along with other neighborhood activists claim another corner store will be a magnet for trouble.
Mike Greenlar | mgreenlar@syracuse.com

Regardless, protesters said another corner store in addition to the handful that already dot the neighborhood would only spell trouble for the community as it struggles to renew itself.

Across from the vacant printing building is a community garden, untouched by vandalism. A block away, the Syracuse Housing Authority recently built five new homes on Midland Avenue. Scattered renovations dot the low-income neighborhood.

"If you want to see something different, then you've got to start doing something different," said Rev. Nebraski Carter, of COGIC Living Waters Church.

Using fiery rhetoric, Carter said the community had picked itself up and now has to move forward.

Such stores can also be pricey, protesters said.

Rodney Bloodworth, who has lived on nearby Hudson Street for years, said corner stores only take from the communities they pop up in and tend not to be owned by locals.

"They don't put nothing back in the community so why would we want them here?" Bloodworth said.

In particular, he said, corner stores tend to buy items wholesale and mark up prices: a can of soup can cost twice what it would at a supermarket.

"Some of the seniors and others that don't have a ride ... end up going in there and paying these prices," he said.

Not everyone at Thursday's protest, however, was against the planned corner store at 200 Oxford St.

A man handed out flyers to people in the group that said the 'A and R Grocery and Deli' was coming soon. The flyer said the store would sell fresh meat, fruits and vegetables among other things.

Several people including Rasheed Mansour, a developer of the planned store, and protesters began arguing. The argument became heated, but the opposing sides eventually ceased the argument peacefully.

Virtually every protester Thursday said this corner store would bring drug, alcohol and gambling problems into the community, just as other stores have.

"Why is it that all the crack dealers are hanging outside these stores?" said Rev. James Thompson, of Foundation of Life Church. "I'm not against business, I'm just against this type of business."

Halfway through the protest, as if on cue, an emergency vehicle went screaming by with lights on and siren blaring.

"That's what happens at corner stores," said Sharon Owens, of the Syracuse Model Neighborhood Facility.